166 Md. App. 90 - Sindler v. Litman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 district · 15 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under the proximate cause analysis, the general rule is that “one may not recover damages in negligence for the suicide of another. The act of suicide is generally considered to be a deliberate, intentional, and intervening act which precludes a finding that a given defendant is, in fact, responsible for the decedent’s death.” E.g., Peters, 527 A.2d at 1276 (citing McLaughlin [v. Sullivan, 123 N.H. 335, 337 , 461 A.2d 123, 124 (1983) ]); see also Cleveland v. Rotman, 297 F.3d 569, 572 (7th Cir.2002) (“It is well-established under Illinois law that a plaintiff may not recover for a decedent’s suicide following a tortious act because suicide is an independent intervening event that the tortfeasor cannot be expected to foresee.”); Watters v. TSR, Inc., 904 F.2d 378, 383 (6th Cir.1990) (“Generally speaking, it has been said, the act of suicide is viewed as ‘an independent intervening act which the original tortfeasor could not have reasonably [been] expected to foresee.’ ” (Citations omitted)); Jamison v. Storer Broadcasting Co., 511 F.Supp. 1286, 1292 (E.D.Mich.1981) (“If a person commits suicide in response to a mental condition, as distinguished from a mental illness, a prior tortfeasor, perhaps in part responsible for that condition, will not be liable because the act of the deceased is viewed as an independent intervening cause.”) ....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Young v. Swiney

2. ““(a) the fact that its intervention brings about harm different in kind from that which would otherwise have resulted from the actor’s negligence; (b) the fact that its operation or the consequences thereof appear after the event to be extraordinary rather than normal in view of the circumstances existing at the time of its operation; (c) the fact that the intervening force is operating independently of any situation created by the actor’s negligence, or, on the other hand, is or is not a normal result of such a situation; (d) the fact that the operation of the intervening force is due to a third person’s act or to his failure to act; (e) the fact that the intervening force is due to an act of a third person which is wrongful toward the other and as such subjects the third person to liability to him; (f) the degree of culpability of a wrongful act of a third person which sets the intervening force in motion.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Pittway Corp. v. Collins

3. “There is an abuse of discretion 'where no reasonable person would take the view adopted by the [trial] court[ ]' ... or when the court acts 'without reference to any guiding rules or principles.' An abuse of discretion may also be found where the ruling under consideration is 'clearly against the logic and effect of facts and inferences before the court[ ]' ... or when the ruling is 'violative of fact and logic.' Questions within the discretion of the trial court are 'much better decided by the trial judges than by appellate courts, and the decisions of such judges should only be disturbed where it is apparent that some serious error or abuse of discretion or autocratic action has occurred.' In sum, to be reversed '[t]he decision under consideration has to be well removed from any center mark imagined by the reviewing court and beyond the fringe of what that court deems minimally acceptable.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 236 Md. App. 117 - Rose v. Rose